From The Province news online: Forty-one British Columbians, including an infant who has suffered arm paralysis, have contracted the Enterovirus-D68 bug this year. A spokeswoman for the B.C. Centre for Disease Control said Tuesday that although the virus — which, in extreme cases, can cause paralysis in arms and legs — has made a comeback this year from 2015, when there...
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has decided to ban anti-bacterial hand and body washes. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are considered one of the biggest threats to human health today. By 2050, infections that cannot be treated with antibiotics are expected to kill more people than cancer. Antibiotics are not only used for treating bacterial infections, but also for preventing infections during surgical procedures, treatment...
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From CBC News: A Utah man who became the first person in the continental U.S. to die after being infected with the Zika virus passed it to a (family member) caregiver. The man who died in late June caught the virus while travelling abroad to an area where mosquitoes are known to spread Zika and had an unusually high level of <mark...
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PICNet has prepared the following Q&A to assist you with questions from staff or patients. You can also download this information as a PDF. View our subsequent news post for infection control and laboratory testing information. What is Candida auris? Is it a new type of infection? Candida auris is a type of Candida yeast. Candida yeasts normally live on the skin and mucous membranes but can...
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[…] information was sent to PICNet’s Community of Practice on July 14, 2016; you can also download the following information as a PDF. PICNet has also prepared a Q&A that you can view in our previous news post or as a PDF. Background The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Public Health Agency of Canada have recently raised an alert...
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Please note: Articles shared on the PICNet website do not necessarily represent the views of PICNet; we are posting these for your interest, and to present viewpoints that may bear consideration in provincial discussions. Two recent opinion articles of interest regarding pandemic preparedness: Jim Yong Kim: A plan to deal with the next pandemic The Washington Post Jim Yong Kim is president...
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From BCCDC: Today the Canadian Sentinel Practitioner Surveillance Network (SPSN) published a paper in Eurosurveillance, entitled “Mutations acquired during cell culture isolation may affect antigenic characterization of influenza A(H3N2) clade 3C.2a viruses”. The paper is available in full here (open access). We thought you would be interested in the findings, although like influenza itself, they are complicated. We have summarized the...
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A paper on Enteric outbreak surveillance in British Columbia, 2009-2013 has been published in the latest CCDR; the co-authors are from the BC Centre for Disease Control; School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia; Vancouver Coastal Health Authority; Fraser Health Authority; Interior Health Authority; Vancouver Island Health Authority; and Northern Health Authority. You can read the full article here....
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Taking a Christmas vacation to New York? Be sure to take your kids to see The Secret World Inside You, an exhibition of the human microbiome at the American Museum of Natural History. You can read the full story about the exhibition on the New York Times website. An immune cell on the attack against a swarm of disease-causing Staphylococcus bacteria....
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Today the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) in collaboration with each of the local health authorities in BC and partners in Alberta, Quebec and nationally at the Public Health Agency of Canada published a paper in the peer-reviewed journal EuroSurveillance describing epidemic features of enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) in Canada during the fall of 2014. For the full publication...
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NEWS RELEASE from Genome BC Are self-disinfecting surfaces the “Midas” touch for reducing hospital infections? Pilot study examines environmental and genomic solution for healthcare associated infections Health care-associated infections (HAIs) are a major burden on patients and health-care systems worldwide. Despite strict hygiene practices and other preventative measures in hospitals there are an estimated 220,000 cases with 8,000 deaths per year <mark...
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Please note: You can find the latest information on EV-D68 on the BC Centre for Disease Control website. BCCDC’s bulletin of September 16th commented on neurologic (paralytic) features associated with two of their initial laboratory-confirmed cases of enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) in British Columbia. Neurologic symptoms were not at that time considered a prominent feature of EV-D68, for which severe respiratory illness was instead emphasized in...
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[…] Don’t skip a beat — Share the opportunity with your colleagues to join the Provincial Infection Control Network (PICNet) Community of Practice to stay updated with the latest provincial infection prevention and control (IPC) e- newsletters about new Provincial guidelines surveillance reports and knowledge translation tools. Plus information about provincial IPC projects and events. You will also receive notice of provincial...
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It is with mixed emotions that we share the news that Stephanie Burniston, Education and Practice Coordinator with PICNet, departed PHSA on November 8th, 2024. We are extremely sad to see her go; however, we’re also elated to continue our partnership with Stephanie in her new position as Director, Population and Public Health Division at the BC Ministry of Health. Stephanie’s infection prevention and control (IPC)...
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Date: August 20, 2024 In response to the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of mpox as a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) on August 14th, PICNet directs you to provincial IPC guidance for mpox in health-care settings, available on PICNet’s mpox webpage. The mpox guidance is intended for health-care workers in health-care settings, programs and services, including acute care/inpatient settings, primary and community clinics,...
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We are elated to share the news that Noorsallah Esmail has accepted the role of Senior Practice Leader with the Provincial Infection Control Network of BC (PICNet). Noorsallah transitioned to her new role May 10th, reporting to Tara Donovan, Network Director. In her new position, Noorsallah is leading the Education and Practice team to address provincial infection prevention and control (IPC) priorities and...
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[…] certified for adhering to established, CMS F Tag, CDC Guideline, OSHA Regulations, HLAC Standards, of TRSA Hygienically Clean Certification CMS F Tag, CDC Guideline, OSHA are mandatory, HLAC and TRSA are voluntary 20 Infection Control Today March 8, 2011 "Of all the surfaces in a hospital, a patient will have the greatest degree of contact with his gown and the bed linens."...
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[…] we are now•Speculation on the future and a personal view of what problems will continue to keep us interested•Tra d i t i o n a l c u rs e : "May you live in interesting times" ENT outpatients, late 1980s On closer inspection Decontamination in general practice -1988 20 practices in the survey ……… Five practices had autoclaves, one had...
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